Stocks in the Spotlight Wednesday

Apple and Corning gained nicely on an up day for stocks, but Caterpillar and Zipcar hit the brakes.

Shares of the world's most valuable company gained an additional 9% after the company reported a Street-beating quarterly profit that almost doubled results from a year earlier. But the critical number was not the earnings figure; it was the number of iPhones sold in the quarter: 35.1 million. This staggering number -- which roughly equals the population of Canada -- exceeded quarterly-iPhone sales from a year ago by 88%. What's particularly encouraging is that the iPhone is making inroads in China in a way...